'We Are Not Prepared To Meet These Threats': Mitch McConnell Decries Cooperation Between Adversaries

2 months ago

During remarks on the Senate floor, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) spoke about cooperation among United States' adversaries.

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Transcript

00:00On another matter, I've said frequently that the single most important immediate objective

00:05of the free world right now is Russian defeat in Ukraine.

00:12I mean that.

00:13But not just for its implications on transatlantic security or our own economy.

00:20Not just because helping degrade a major adversary's military strength is in America's interest.

00:29Not just because the defense of Ukraine has ignited significant new investments in hard

00:34power here at home and among our European allies.

00:39Certainly not just because of what the outcome will say about how the free world values sovereignty.

00:45No, the world we live in doesn't reward thinking compartmentally.

00:52Security threats don't exist in vacuums.

00:57Our credibility is not divisible.

01:01Our adversaries are working more closely together to undermine the American-led order.

01:07And allowing one threat to fester makes every other one a taller order.

01:15This week, the final report of the Independent Bipartisan Commission on the National Defense

01:21Strategy underscored this reality.

01:26Quote, the new alignment of nations opposed to U.S. interests creates a real risk, if

01:34not likelihood, that conflict anywhere could become a multi-theater or global war.

01:43A multi-theater war, the sort of conflict America is simply not prepared to fight.

01:51Too many in Washington seem to think America can just opt out of facing such a challenge.

01:57But our enemies get a vote, too.

01:59And we owe it to our service members and the American people to plan accordingly.

02:05As the NDS Commission report lays out, we have a lot of work to do and not much time

02:12to do it.

02:14The PRC's military is already leaving little room for doubt about Beijing's willingness

02:20to use hard power to coerce its neighbors and to test American power and Western resolve.

02:29Last month, the PRC's naval forces launched a violent confrontation in disputed waters

02:35that Beijing clearly hopes to turn into a Chinese lake.

02:41The Philippines, America's longtime treaty ally, has maintained a lawful presence in

02:49an area just 100 miles off their coast known as the Second Thomas Shoal for decades.

02:58The sailors peacefully man a grounded ship on the shoal, and they count on regular shipments

03:06of supplies.

03:08But in recent months, these shipments have come under brazen attack.

03:15These forces have rammed Philippine resupply vessels, harassed them with water cannons,

03:23injured Philippine sailors, destroyed their navigation equipment, towed them out to sea,

03:31and left them for dead.

03:33Thankfully, the most acute aggression appears to have subsided for the moment, but a fundamental

03:39reality still remains.

03:45Just as Russia is using force to redraw European borders and reassert imperial ambitions, just

03:54as Iran is using force to sow chaos and threaten international shipping, the People's Republic

04:00of China is engaged in a concerted effort to expand its control over maritime commerce

04:06well beyond its borders and to build a pretext for wider war.

04:13And the first target of that conflict may well be America's longest-standing treaty

04:18ally in the Indo-Pacific.

04:23Our adversaries have struck up a no-limits partnership, and the challenges they present

04:30us are as complex as they are urgent.

04:36We don't get to make neat and tidy either-or choices about which threats deserve our attention.

04:45Not anymore.

04:46The Senate was right to pass a national security supplemental to equip vulnerable partners

04:53with American weapons and invest in expanding our defense production capacity earlier this

05:00year.

05:01And the Biden administration was right to start directing more rhetorical attention

05:05to the challenge facing our Philippine ally.

05:10But to the extent that the administration is serious about backing up its frequent assurances

05:15to the Philippines with actual support, it's high time to do more to help our allies and

05:21partners in the Indo-Pacific to reconfigure and strengthen their defenses against the

05:27PRC's maritime threat, and to clear bureaucratic barriers so security assistance programs can

05:35move at the speed of relevance.

05:39More importantly, it's time for Congress and the administration to take our shared responsibility

05:44to provide for the common defense seriously.

05:49So I'll close today with another quote from the co-chairs of the Bipartisan National Defense

05:54Strategy Commission.

05:56Here's what they said.

05:59The Commission finds that the United States faces the most significant national security

06:05threats since the height of the Cold War, if not World War II.

06:13We are not prepared to meet these threats.

06:16The United States confronts the prospect of war against peer and near-peer adversaries

06:22simultaneously across multiple theaters, a war we could quite possibly lose.

'We Are Not Prepared To Meet These Threats': Mitch McConnell Decries Cooperation Between Adversaries

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